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Australian Tennis

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hamohawk1

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sorry if there is a thread of this already...

i am just worried about our level of competitive tennis players currently playing around the world

men: we have tomic, but as much hype that has been set around him he has only peformed well at grandslams (refer to his first round exit this week of a tournament) he is still young but i am undecided if he will be a champion or not

hewitt is finished, no question about it. body is done and cannot match it with the young crop + nadals etc

we do have certain players around the 200 mark i.e. ball, jones etc but they have yet to show me anything promising

women: we have our two imports (rodinova and gajdosova) which are doing well

we have our young crop i.e. sally peers, isabella holland that are 200 mark and like tomic still young to call

i am a bit dissapointed with olivia rogowska. around the 200 mark but was almost matching it with the stars in 2009 (her first round at us open where she almost won) yet has shown nothing since

while many of the players i have mentioned are still young it still doesn't represent a stronh picture for Australian tennis. When the big overhaul was stated to happen to australian tennis in the mid 00's big things were expected but little has delivered so far

tennis is now a global game but surely Australia can still produce some champions with the resources we have
 
I pretty much agree with you. If you look at US Quallies now it is pretty obvious that we're not going well.

Men's:Of the one's who've yet to play there's:
Luczak - can't believe he's still playing
Guccione - unfortunately I think he's just a serve.
Ball - Not sure what happened to this bloke, seemed a very good prospect a couple of years ago. Is now useless.

Greg Jones - won his first round of quallies, I know nothing about him though so I can't comment.

Ebden beat another Aussie called Lemke. I guess Ebden might be able to crack the top 100, he's had some decent results this year but I dunno. Isn't he about 24 already?

Women's
Peers and Rogowska already lost their R1 quallies. Peers after looking good last year has done jack shit for whatever reason. Rogowska likewise after she nearly toppled Safina at USO a couple of years ago.

Barty - receieved a WC. Only 15 so in a couple of years they'll probably put her under immense pressure, akin to Tomic.

Holland - Have no idea about this girl either. She hasn't played yet I don't think.

I think Stosur and Gajdosova sort of gave us the impression that we were going well again, as did Dokic to an extent. You've gotta be realistic though, Stosur is 27, who knows how long she'll still be around for, Dokic is close to, if not 30 and unfortunately has not managed to get any sort of momentum due to injury, depression what ever else.
Rodionova has definitely done very well for the player she is, made numerous third round GS appearences.
If Jarka sorts herself out she shouldn't be too far away.
Not sure Dellacqua will get back to where she was. Even when she was ranked around 50 odd she was still very erratic.

I guess in the men's apart from Tomic we'll be relying on the likes of Saville and Kubler to come through.

I guess I'm negative in regards to tennis, but unless some of these Juniors come through its back to the wilderness after popping our heads out for a few minutes.
 
hirdy_is_champ said:
I pretty much agree with you. If you look at US Quallies now it is pretty obvious that we're not going well.

Men's:Of the one's who've yet to play there's:
Luczak - can't believe he's still playing
Guccione - unfortunately I think he's just a serve.
Ball - Not sure what happened to this bloke, seemed a very good prospect a couple of years ago. Is now useless.

Greg Jones - won his first round of quallies, I know nothing about him though so I can't comment.

Ebden beat another Aussie called Lemke. I guess Ebden might be able to crack the top 100, he's had some decent results this year but I dunno. Isn't he about 24 already?

Women's
Peers and Rogowska already lost their R1 quallies. Peers after looking good last year has done jack shit for whatever reason. Rogowska likewise after she nearly toppled Safina at USO a couple of years ago.

Barty - receieved a WC. Only 15 so in a couple of years they'll probably put her under immense pressure, akin to Tomic.

Holland - Have no idea about this girl either. She hasn't played yet I don't think.

I think Stosur and Gajdosova sort of gave us the impression that we were going well again, as did Dokic to an extent. You've gotta be realistic though, Stosur is 27, who knows how long she'll still be around for, Dokic is close to, if not 30 and unfortunately has not managed to get any sort of momentum due to injury, depression what ever else.
Rodionova has definitely done very well for the player she is, made numerous third round GS appearences.
If Jarka sorts herself out she shouldn't be too far away.
Not sure Dellacqua will get back to where she was. Even when she was ranked around 50 odd she was still very erratic.

I guess in the men's apart from Tomic we'll be relying on the likes of Saville and Kubler to come through.

I guess I'm negative in regards to tennis, but unless some of these Juniors come through its back to the wilderness after popping our heads out for a few minutes.
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great post:thumbsu:
all junior players mentioned (barty, peers, rogowska,kubler, saville) all bar tomic have come through the ais program which woodbridge stated to the death during wimbledon!

no real success with barty the only success so far.... hopefully be a freak but media pressure may be her downfall

i really disagree with the handouts australian tennis gives to our stars. there are just no incentive to really work your arse off to survive. tennis australia gives financial payments for travel, coaching, fitness etc on top of many helpful handouts into tournaments.

i remember hearing rafter once say that he toured as a really young (16-17) year old boy in europe. got no assistance and slept in a citizens backyard as thats all he could afford. he went through stress but look where it got him!

i am just so passionaite about this issue. we have such a proud history in tennis, although since the early 00's we have hardly featured bar a few appearences in grand slam final. tennis is now a fully globalized sport which makes it harder, although comparing it to other sports i.e swimming where australia still holds its weight and to a lesser extent cricket now we have really dropped our game. it really hurts to see
 
To me it's been the lack of consisent top 100 players that we haven't been producing disappoints me, had the occasional break in to the top 100 by guys like Luczak and Guccione over the last few years but no one apart from Sam and Lleyton have really taken that void. Molik and Dellacqua would also count but they have been unlucky with illness and injuries and while Alicia is gone, Dellacqua has been struggling in her comeback and only got the WC because of how poor our women outside the top 100 are doing.

It's still going to be years until we see improvements, it's only been a few years since TA have been trying to get their act together, trying to set a base in Europe etc. We've had promising junior results but we need to improve that into senior results.

Peers has had a pretty ordinary 2011 but honestly she is making the most of her talent, she probably wasn't top 100 material anyway unless she really worked hard on fitness and consistency (ala Pratty style). Rogoswka has been a disappointment ever since that USO match against Safina. I think she has improved a little this season but nothing to our hopes. Holland has also slightly improved but again nothing and no way near the talent we need to be competing with.

With the countries increasing that are playing tennis, it will take some time to catch up, they need to create a harder work eithic as you see with these kinds of tennis acamdies that are around. I don't know whether stopping handouts to players is a way to go as since we are lucky enough to ahve a Slam we can use some of that money to help our juniors get to the pros. We probably won't know for another 5-10 years if it actually works.
 

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When i was growing up in the early nineties we had nobody even close to top ten in the mens and the womens now we have a player in the top ten who is contending for premier tournaments and the odd grand slam. pat/flip/lleyton were definately an out of the ordinary golden generation but the one that preceded them was decidedly ordinary so im not entirely convinced with this whole decline thing that people like to trumpet.
 
WhisperingsOfWar said:
When i was growing up in the early nineties we had nobody even close to top ten in the mens and the womens now we have a player in the top ten who is contending for premier tournaments and the odd grand slam.
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I would take what we had in the early 90s over what we have now. Fromberg, Stoltenberg, Woodforde, Woodbridge, McQuillan, Bradtke might not have been worldbeaters but they were all solid top 50/100 players at various points in their careers, and capable of winning multiple matches at big tournaments.

I mean, the boys got us to the final of the Davis Cup in 1993 and put up a decent fight against the likes of Stich and Becker in Germany. Can you really see the likes of Matosevic, Tomic and friends doing that?

To be honest I doubt we'll ever be as great at tennis again as we have been in the past. Us, the Yanks, the Poms - we all have the same problem. Tennis is expensive to learn, expensive to play, and it's far easier to make a good living as a professional athlete in a host of other sports.

What's easier - being one of the top hundred or so footballers in Australia, or one of the top hundred or so tennis players in the world? Bit of a no brainer if you're a young athlete.
 
Caesar said:
Us, the Yanks, the Poms - we all have the same problem. Tennis is expensive to learn, expensive to play, and it's far easier to make a good living as a professional athlete in a host of other sports.

What's easier - being one of the top hundred or so footballers in Australia, or one of the top hundred or so tennis players in the world? Bit of a no brainer if you're a young athlete.
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This. There is no solution to it really and that's why I support Tennis Australia handouts to young talent even if it does spoil them a bit.

As is seen now, most of our players coming through have european backgrounds. Not many Aussie born kids who puruse their tennis talent all the way and if they do they often regret not choosing something else like AFL.
 
I remember reading an article by Leo Schlink a while back and he was of the view that Tennis Australia were basking in past glories rather than putting dollars into the development of Australia's young tyros. Also these juniors having their every whim catered to rather than working for their success, which has been pointed out in this thread.
 
barty could be something special, what a great week she has had and year for that. some massive wins

rogowska looked mentally weak today and even admitted in the talk after the match that it is a long road back to where she wants to be but shes slowly getting there. is it the AIS' fault or?

dellacqua will get a wildcard and should win a round or two at the open so she probably deserves it

matosevic may win a round at the open but is a tier player imo like a lot of the australian players

any other observations made from the recent december and australian itf tour
 
Ebden stepped up this year at the age of 23. Time will time if it was just a flash in the pan or if he's here to stay (in the top 100). Hopefully one of Saville, Duckworth, or Mitchell can also take the next step. They each look promising. Kubler is an extreme talent and if he can get his body right he'll go further than just top 100. - He should be something special.

Women I thought were in better shape than men, but by and large I've been disappointed. Barty is a jet though!
 
Ebden has got a big few months ahead of him, it will basically tell us if he can stay in the top 100, not just the Australian summer but in the US in Feburary (where I assume he'll be) or be a one hit wonder. A good draw to get a round win would be nice (although, he had a good one last year and didn't take it)

Duckworth and Mitchell will be full time on the challenger circuit next year which will be a step up so it will depend on the ranking improvement whether these guys are top 100 players potentially as well.
 
no one from australia truly making me excited for the australian open at the moment. they all need to get their act together fast
 

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hamohawk1 said:
no one from australia truly making me excited for the australian open at the moment. they all need to get their act together fast
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Tomic will be exciting, but mainly because we have no idea what to expect, he needs to bring the gap between his good days and bad days down considerably.

That should come with time though.

I wouldn't give up on Stosur for this years AO though. If she puts a decent run together she should have the belief now to make at least the QF's. Where she goes from there depends on her seeding.
 
Ricketts said:
Keep handing out the wildcards, which promotes no desire for these hacks to try and improve their game. Spoon fed is the way to go. :rolleyes: Australian tennis is a shambles.
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Could you expand a bit? I'm not quite sure what you're referring to. Each GS and every tournament for that matter, is allowed to allocate WC's to locals. If the next players in line aren't up to it it basically just means the talent is not there. It has nothing to do with spoon feeding, its more to do with other issues in development etc. Although I admit there have been a couple of dodgy WC's handed out over the years, the biggest joke being Lukszevic or whatever that girl's name was, but I wouldn't be surprised if she "knew" someone.

Also wouldn't say Australian tennis is a shambes either. Yeah its not the best but considering where we were a few years ago, we're not that bad. Also I'd rather have less players, who will actually challenge for a GS than say France where they have shitloads of players (both men's and women's) but the only one who will ever challenge for a GS is Tsonga.
 
Ricketts said:
Keep handing out the wildcards, which promotes no desire for these hacks to try and improve their game. Spoon fed is the way to go. :rolleyes: Australian tennis is a shambles.
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Yeah, because the challenger and futures circuit is such a breeze to play on :rolleyes: You do realise that these WC are a major source of income for the year to fund their trips. It's an expensive sport, very hard to break into making money. If we don't support them, how do we expect players to get into the top then? How about giving our players experience at the tour level to make our players work harder to try and get there full time. Have you ever thought of that?

None of these players who have got wildcards have got haven't been gifted, they have good results at a lower level (Mitchell, Duckworth, Rogowska) or have had injuries that have kept their ranking lower (Dellacqua, Matosevic). They certainly aren't hacks, I'm sure you have watched any of these players apart from Casey (when she was doing well) either.

And Australian tennis is in shambles? Hahahaha, thanks for giving me another reason to post this:

sam-stosur-wins-us-open-grand-slam_395.jpg


I get what you are trying to say (lack of players in the top 100) but when your star wins a slam in the last year, it's not in shambles.
 

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loads of nerves i imagine but she never looked like even winning a game despite having 2-3 game points all match. simply looked second class to dokic in terms of rallying, placement, even her serves were only clocking low 130kms iirc. it wasn't a great sight for australian tennis

hopefully she can bounce back asap
 
It's just not an Australian problem, but also an American and English problem.

The old powers have been conquered by Eastern Europe, whose best are taller, and I believe more athletically gifted. Guys like Djokovic and Safin can/were able to move just as well as Hewitt and co, but have bigger games.

We have lots of kids from that part of the world, sure, but not in the same numbers.
 
Ummmmm so I'm just glancing trrough the women's qualies draw, and I see Arina Rodionova, and she's listed as Australian. When did this become official??? Last I heard about a year ago was that she wanted to become an Aussie like her sister but there was some issue with it. Have I been off with the pixies or is this relatively recent news??

She's not a bad looker either. :p
 
Sammy is competitive in Europe and North America but struggles here and at Wimbledon.

Casey has come a long way from not playing a year ago and now is ranked just outside the top 100, if she remains fit, should be top 50 by the time that the 2013 Australian Open starts.

Jarka could be top 20 but is off the boil and I am not sure if she can turn it around.

The men

Hewitt is in the twilight of his career but is still competitive against most players

Tomic whilst he is developing, I am yet to jump on the Tomicwagon. My main problem is more a result of the over hyping he is receiving from the media
 
Bombermania said:
Sammy is competitive in Europe and North America but struggles here and at Wimbledon.

Casey has come a long way from not playing a year ago and now is ranked just outside the top 100, if she remains fit, should be top 50 by the time that the 2013 Australian Open starts.

Jarka could be top 20 but is off the boil and I am not sure if she can turn it around.

The men

Hewitt is in the twilight of his career but is still competitive against most players

Tomic whilst he is developing, I am yet to jump on the Tomicwagon. My main problem is more a result of the over hyping he is receiving from the media
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Duckworth and Ebden have potential too amongst others.
 

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